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Ting-A-Ling Youth Project
Ting-A-Ling is a voluntary organisation with an objective of channelling young people into further education and was established in 1993 when a number of venues closed down that were once frequented by inner city youths. Started by Kirk Davis the aim of the project is to steer young people away from crime and the objective is to get them involved in education and training that will better themselves and the community they live in.
Kirk got local people involved in the project because he felt “There wasn’t any opportunities or activities for young people”. The first activity that Kirk organised was a football event at the Mohammed Ali Centre. In August 1993 he arranged three coaches to take children (many of which had never had the opportunity to go on day outs because of exclusion from school and previously being in trouble) on a day trip to Blackpool and in the next month he started up a weekly roller skating group.
For a voluntary organisation to have lasted over a decade is an achievement in itself and Ting-A-Ling manage to do this by receiving one off funding from small funders. They also receive donations from individuals and the likes of Aston Villa Football Club, The Norton Foundation and they receive support from various departments in the Birmingham City Council. Ting-A-Ling’s intention is to get charity status and then eventually become a limited company by guarantee.
Of the work that Kirk has done with Ting-A-Ling he believes that, “We definitely have a positive impact with the young people. We found that a lot of the young people are going through traumas that we did go through so we can then redirect these young people by saying well we went down that way”.
Ting-A-Ling are contracted by two training agencies to tutor at different organisations across the city. The courses serviced by Ting-A-Ling include Drug Awareness, Anti-Social Behaviour, Citizenship & My England, DJing, Mentoring/Counselling, Bullying, My Rights and Community Activities amongst other things.
Being an inner city project Ting-A-Ling have worked with people from diverse cultural backgrounds including Asians, Iraqis, Somalis and African Caribbean people and their target age range is 14 to 21 year olds.
Marcus Garvey has inspired Ting-A-Ling in terms of his philosophy on uplifting African Caribbean people. This has led to Ting-A-Ling holding an annual Marcus Garvey Day. This year it will take place in Handsworth Park on the 14th and 15th August. “Marcus Garvey Day is a chance for the immediate community around to take the opportunity to see how the African Caribbean community live. Also for the African Caribbean community to uplift themselves and to actually look at one of our prestige role models the most honourable Marcus Messiah Garvey, the works that he contributed to I and I upliftment”.
It’s lucky for the community that Ting-A-Ling always keep the faith because where the Marcus Garvey Day is concerned when Kirk first suggested it, “Black people were saying oh there is no carnival and I was saying that we don’t need carnival because we’ve got our own heroes and sheroes that we can celebrate but people weren’t understanding me and I held the first one and it was OK”.
Then when the carnival was moved out of Handsworth after a fight from many carnival supporters Ting-A-Ling secured keeping the Marcus Garvey Day in Handsworth Park. “People couldn’t believe it and they were going how comes you’ve got the park and we got it for two days. So we got to keep working on that, keeping it real. It’s not a carnival it’s something completely different it’s an educational fete. What we are looking to do is to get people to come there and get education from it. Buy a black book on that day make that stem to say there’s not just one day but we can come together and celebrate Marcus Garvey. We can take his works out there and we can start to celebrate with people who go to university and get higher degree and respect those young people in the community that we’ve got because we are living in a community. We’ve got a lot of talent but people don’t want to work together. Because of Marcus Garvey so many people come together it’s amazing. We have one half of the community that is like the inner city people and we have millions of black superstars and footballers, musicians and dancers that want to be found. They want to come back into the inner city but the inner city has to meet them on a level. We can’t expect them to come down”.
Ting-A-Ling are currently in talks with Birmingham City Council to get a location available to hold Haile Selassie’s birthday which falls on Friday 23rd July but they think that more than likely they will be celebrating it on the weekend of the 24th and 25th July. This is to be confirmed.
Plans are underway for Ting-A-Ling to put on a World Cup Football Tournament for under 18s at either the Aston Villa Leisure Centre or at the playing field opposite the Garden Gate Pub in Hamstead. Therefore Ting-A-Ling are asking local football clubs for donations of footballs, medals, football kits and trophies. Also anyone interested in filling in the positions of referees and linesmen and football personalities that would be interested in presenting trophies please make contact with Ting-A-Ling.
Ting-A-Ling are always looking for opportunities and providing a service and another event they are looking to put on is a Musical Fair. “A lot of young people out there might be at home rapping music by themselves or they might be playing an instrument by themselves not knowing that there is support out there for them. Or if they can go to a studio they might be limited and say they can’t go to a studio because they don’t have the airtime and there are a lot of people out there that have got a studio that would like people to come and use their studio. So it’s all about sharing information. It’s like an educational fair, which we would be looking to target big players, maybe Pato Banton and other people that deal with the music environment”.
Ting-A-Ling will be putting together a dance group from ages of 8 to 18 and they want to get females involved. They have decided to put together a yearly plan so they can manage their current workshops more effectively with a hope to taking on more workshops which is essential to Ting-A-Ling sustaining their status and continuing to put on events like the black hereos and sheroes. In the future Ting-A-Ling would like to expand and have more offices around the city, which in turn will mean more training for young people.
If you live in and around the Birmingham area you might have seen Ting-A-Ling’s advertising on billboards or in the Evening Mail and Birmingham Voice newspapers and other local magazines and radio stations.
Ting-A-Ling will be putting on more fund raising events like car washing, small fetes and football associations including Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion sometimes provide prizes that can be raffled off. Ting-A-Ling have learned from the workings of Marcus Garvey that they need to be self sufficient and create their own economy therefore they don’t want to always be in a position where they are “begging for money” but until this time donations are always greatly received and cheques can be made payable to the ‘Ting-A-Ling Youth Project’ and sent through to 58b Villa Road, Handsworth, Birmingham B19 1BL. If you want to take advantage of Ting-A-Ling’s services or want to offer your services then why not contact them on Tel: 0121 523 8784 or email:
ting_a_lingyouthproject@hotmail.com.
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